Custom Audio & Lighting New V-DOSC Partner

Regional SR company Custom Audio & Lighting, Inc. of Abbeville,S.C. is now a V-DOSC partners with its September purchase of 18L-Acoustics V-DOSC line array loudspeakers, a dozen SB218 subs, fourdV-DOSC cabinets for downfill and 20 LA Series amplifiers.

Pictured the Custom Audio & Lighting team at “V-DOSCSchool,” including instructor Bernie Broderick (far right),L-Acoustics U.S. director of technical services, and Custom's Andy andJanet Sykora (second and third from right)

Custom Audio & Lighting president Andy Sykora said that hiscrew's first performance with the new rig was on a Hank Williams Jr.and Trace Adkins show at the 11,000-seat Arena at Gwinnett Center inthe Atlanta suburb of Duluth on September 19. "When we loaded in forthe show, I thought, 'Wow, I hope our system covers,’ but it juststomped," he said. "We never saw a clip light on the amps that night,and both of the artists' house engineers loved what they were hearing.Then the next night in the same venue, we did Tommy James and TheShondells, Ben E. King, Peter Noone from Herman's Hermits and TheTurtles, and we never got the rig out of first gear. The L-Acousticssystem is a real Cadillac."

Sykora and his wife/co-owner, Janet, knew that the time had come toupdate their previous systems when they heard the V-DOSC rig ofWinston-Salem's Special Event Services at the 18,000-seat William A.Floyd Amphitheater in Anderson, S.C. "Hearing SES' P.A. in the sameroom where we had just used ours [on a previous show] gave us a realframe of reference. The throw, clarity and fidelity of the L-AcousticsP.A. made us realize that there was a huge disparity between what wewere providing our clients and what we could be. That experiencegreatly helped cement our opinion and choice to go with V-DOSC."

He also pointed out that there were several other reasons for thepurchase: "The rider acceptability of V-DOSC is a given. With our oldboxes, there was always at least a 15-minute conversation withengineers and production people to make them feel comfortable with oursystem. With V-DOSC, that’s now down to one or two minutes, tops.Plus, being a part of the V-DOSC network is great if we ever need tosub-hire more equipment for a particular performance or event. And it'sjust as good for us if someone needs to rent our cabinets when we don'thave a show booked.

"Janet and I couldn't be happier with the way everything has turnedout," said Sykora. "Jeffrey Cox at L-Acoustics U.S. has been attentive,informative and accessible throughout the entire experience, and he'sreally made us feel very welcome. And having Bernie Broderick come outhere for three days to explain sound theory and show us how to bestimplement our new system was a huge personal touch. It gave us allgreat confidence that we can go out make our shows the very best."